Mohammed Ali Malek was arrested when the Italian coastguard vessel docked in Sicily

Details have emerged about the capsize of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean on Sunday that killed more than 800.

Prosecutors in Italy say the captain, who survived and faces multiple homicide charges, crashed the boat by mistake against a merchant rescue ship.

The capsize is the deadliest recorded in the Mediterranean, the UN says.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says deaths in 2015 are 30 times higher than the same period last year and could rise to 30,000.

Media captionAs Yolande Knell reports, it is believed up to 60 children could have been trapped below deck when the boat went down

Italian police said they issued an arrest warrant for the Tunisian captain of the boat, Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, and crew member Mahmud Bikhit, a 25-year-old Syrian, as soon as the coastguard vessel Bruno Gregoretti docked.

At the scene: BBC’s James Reynolds in Mineo, Sicily

More than a dozen survivors of the weekend shipwreck are being guarded in a house inside the Mineo migrant centre.

They’ve become the most important witnesses in an official criminal investigation into the wreck of their boat. Italian officials instructed us not to approach or speak to them.

After midday the survivors came out of the house and were escorted the few steps to a waiting minibus. The survivors – all young men – boarded the bus in single file and in silence.

One of them sat next to the window. I caught his eye and signalled a thumbs up or thumbs down sign as a question. He replied with a thumbs up – and then broke out into a smile.

The survivors were then driven a short distance to the dining hall, where they were served a lunch of pasta, rice, chicken and vegetables. They ate in silence.

The prosecutors said it appeared the merchant vessel, the Portuguese ship King Jacob, was not to blame.

The IOM’s Flavio Di Giacomo said the survivors were “very tired, very shocked” when they arrived in Catania.

Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, said it had interviewed most of the 28.

Media captionBBC Arabic’s Nawal Assad reports from Sicily, where migrants have been expressing their gratitude for the opportunity of a new life in Italy

He said about 350 on board were believed to be Eritreans, with refugees from other nations including Syria, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

More than 1,700 migrants are believed to have died so far in 2015.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman told reporters in Geneva: “The 2015 death toll now is more than 30 times last year’s total at this date… when just 56 deaths of migrants had been reported on the Mediterranean.

Media captionThe BBC’s Damian Grammaticas spoke to one survivor of the boat which capsized off Rhodes

“IOM now fears the 2014 total of 3,279 migrant [deaths] on the Mediterranean may be surpassed this year in a matter of weeks, and could well top 30,000 by the end of the year, based on the current death toll. It could actually be even higher.”

Separately in Greece, two Syrian men rescued from a vessel which ran aground off Rhodes on Monday, killing three of about 90 migrants on board, will face charges linked to illegal transportation.

UK pledge

The charges came after the EU set out a package of measures to try to ease the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

They include an increase in the financial resources of Frontex, the border agency runs the EU’s Mediterranean rescue service Triton, and an extension of Triton’s operational area.

The EU had been criticised over the scope of Triton, which replaced the larger Italian operation Mare Nostrum at the end of last year.

The United States for years has praised Ethiopia’s fight against terrorism in East Africa, but that hard-line approach to extreme Islamism may have contributed to the bloody execution of dozens of Ethiopian Christians who were targeted by the Islamic State in Libya.

Addis Ababa has been long consumed with a bigger threat on their borders — against the militant group al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia. The slaughter of two groups of Christians, in Libya likely seeking work or passage to Europe, newly confronts Ethiopia with the world’s fastest-spreading insurgency.

Militants in Libya claiming affiliation with the Islamic extremistsdocumented the brutal killings of two groups of Ethiopian Christian men, whom they accuse of belonging to “the hostile Ethiopian Orthodox Church.” Men in one group, clad in orange jumpsuits on the beach, were beheaded. Others, dressed entirely in black, were lined up and shot.

On Monday, J. Peter Pham, the director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, told Foreign Policy that Ethiopia’s involvement in the fight against al-Shabab and other local extremist groups could make Ethiopians an attractive target for the Islamic State.

“The Ethiopian government in the last few years has taken a much stronger line against political Islamism in their own country,” Pham said. “The Ethiopian government acting against jihadists in the horn of Africa and in their own country to repress acts of political Islamism in jihadist circles makes them an attractive target for extremist groups.”

A State Department official told FP Monday that despite broad cooperation between the United States and Ethiopia on anti-terrorism initiatives, there is currently no collaboration between the two governments on a specifically anti-Islamic State program. The State Department’s focus in Ethiopia has landed more heavily on countering al-Shabab, the extremist group responsible for attacks in Somalia and Kenya. The United States has provided equipment, training, and technical support to help counter the group and maintain peace in the region.

“Ethiopia is an important partner in regional-led efforts to counter terrorist group al-Shabab and bring stability to Somalia,” said the official, who refused to be identified by name in this story, following department guidelines. “Ethiopia is contributing over 4,400 personnel deployed as part of the AU [African Union] mission in Somalia.”

The execution is just the most recent example of the Islamic State targeting Christians in its campaign to implement its extreme version of Sharia law in the areas it occupies or controls. In Iraq and Syria, the group has destroyed Christian communities and historical sites. The militants claim they offer Christians the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay a tax to continue practicing Christianity unharmed.

The Islamic State also has repeatedly targeted Shiite Muslims, secular Sunnis, and Iraq’s minority Yazidi population.

This group’s murders mirrored the beheadings of a group of Egyptian Coptic Christians on a Libyan beach in February, and the video even features the same English-speaking militant who narrated that execution. The Egyptian government launched airstrikes just hours after that video’s release.

The Ethiopian government, however, has not yet announced any kind of retaliatory strike, and the Ethiopian embassy in Washington did not immediately return a request for comment. Just four weeks out from a general election, Pham said it is unlikely the ruling party, which is vying for reelection, would launch any military effort that could be seen as controversial by many Ethiopians hoping not to get involved in an international conflict.

But the government did declare three days of mourning Monday, and said lawmakers will use that time to deliberate a response to the killings.

In a press briefing Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest maintained the U.S. focus on stopping the spread of Islamic State-related attacks throughout the region. “That these terrorists killed these men solely because of their faith points to the terrorists’ vicious, senseless brutality,” Earnest said.

Earnest noted some claims of affiliation with the Islamic State may lack validity. But he also said the possibility of extremists’ expansion into Libya should be taken seriously — and is a major reason President Barack Obama is focused on eliminating the Islamic State at its roots in Iraq and Syria.

Obama remains focused on curbing the Islamic State, and will “not allow it to continue to spread across the region in a way that it could further destabilize an already volatile region of the world,” Earnest said.

20 April 2015 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned in the strongest terms the killing of a number of Ethiopian nationals in Libya by extremists affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to a United Nations spokesperson.

In a statement released earlier today, Mr. Ban said he “utterly deplores” the targeting of people on the basis of their religious affiliation and expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives as a result of the attack.

The Secretary-General reaffirmed that the UN-backed political talks remained “the best chance” for Libyans to overcome their country’s crisis and encourage the parties to make all the necessary compromises to reach an agreement.

“Only by working together will Libyans be able to start building a state and institutions that can confront terrorism,” concluded the statement from Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.

ISIL, which is also known by its Arabic designation, Da’esh, has been operative in Libya over the past few months amid intensifying UN-backed efforts to facilitate a political resolution to the country’s ongoing crisis. In late February, for example, the militant group claimed responsibility for a series of attacks killed at least 45 people and injured scores of others in the city of al-Qubbah.

The United States condemned the “brutal mass murder” of 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya following a video released by Islamic State militants purportedly showing their execution.

The 29-minute IS video appears to show militants holding two groups of captives, described in text captions as “followers of the cross from the enemy Ethiopian Church”.

National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan decried the killings and called for stability in Libya, which has been mired in political chaos and unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled former strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the brutal mass murder purportedly of Ethiopian Christians by ISIL-affiliated terrorists in Libya,” she said, using another name for IS.

“This atrocity once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya to empower a unified Libyan rejection of terrorist groups.”

Ethiopia said its embassy in Egypt was trying to verify the video to ascertain if those murdered were indeed its nationals.

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Egyptians residing in Libya, wait for their departure from Djerba airport on the Tunisian-Libyan bor …

The video bore the logo of the IS media arm and was similar to past footage released by the jihadists, including of 21 Coptic Christians beheaded on a Libyan beach in February. Several Libyan jihadist groups have pledged allegiance to IS.

Addis Ababa says IS, which has seized chunks of Syria and Iraq and won the support of jihadist groups across the region, has also gained a foothold in Ethiopia.

“There are elements of IS around Ethiopia who are already carrying out operations, even though under a different name,” said Redwan, referring to the Shebab group.

Since the 2011 revolt, Libya has been awash with weapons, has rival governments and parliaments, and is on the edge of all-out civil war as armed groups battle to control its cities and oil wealth.

Officials have repeatedly warned that Libya could become a jihadist haven on Europe’s doorstep unless the violence stops and a national unity government is formed.

And waves of would-be immigrants including Ethiopians have been using Libya as a stepping stone to embark on perilous sea crossings to Europe. More than 700 people are feared drowned in the latest disaster.

On Sunday, UN envoy Bernardino Leon said after weeks of brokering talks between rival Libyan factions that they had reached a draft accord which is “very close to a final agreement”.

Speaking to reporters in Morocco, Leon also said preparations were under way for armed groups to hold direct talks to end the conflict.

Referring to the IS video and fighting in Libya, Leon said: “We know that the enemies of peace, the enemies of the agreement, will be active and be even more active in the coming days and weeks.”

The IS execution of Copts in February prompted retaliatory air strikes from Egypt, with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pushing for the creation of a joint Arab military force to battle jihadists.

Arab military chiefs will meet on Wednesday in Cairo to discuss how the force will be created, its role and financing, an Arab League official said.

A US-led coalition of Western and Arab nations is already waging an air war against IS in Syria and Iraq.

IS has carried out atrocities against minorities — including Christians and Yazidis — sparking fears for the fate of vulnerable communities in mostly Muslim nations.

Many in Ethiopia are reeling from the news that several Ethiopians were killed in Libya by the Islamic State group, which over the weekend released a video purporting to show the killings.

The victims were planning to go to Europe by boat from Libya but were captured and then killed by the Islamic extremists, said grieving family members and government officials. Ethiopia’s government on Monday declared three days of mourning.

The killings have shocked many in the predominantly Christian country, where some on Monday gathered in an Addis Ababa slum to mourn two former residents whose faces were recognized in the Islamic State video.

The 29-minute video, released on Sunday via social media accounts and websites used by the extremists, shows many Ethiopian Christians held captive in Libya being shot or beheaded by militants.

Eyasu Yikunoamlak and Balcha Belete left Ethiopia two months ago with the aim of reaching Europe. They are believed to have left Ethiopia through Sudan and later traveled to Libya where they planned to take a boat to Europe but they were seized by Islamic State militants, relatives told The Associated Press on Monday.

Relatives and friends of the two victims in Cherkos Village, a poor neighborhood of the Ethiopian capital, said Eyasu and Balcha grew up together and used to live in the same house.

Seyoum Yikunoamlak, the older brother of Eyasu, said he first learned about the death of his younger brother on Sunday evening while checking the news on Facebook.

“I was very worried how to tell our family but everyone is a Facebook user these days so people in our village told our family that Eyasu was among the group that are on the (Islamic State) video,” a tearful Seyoum said.

Family members stopped getting calls from Eyasu a month ago and grew worried, but news of a violent death was never expected, he said.

“His dream was to go to Italy and then reach the U.K. and help himself and his family members,” he said.

Redwan Hussein, an Ethiopian government spokesman, said on Sunday he believed the victims were Ethiopian migrants trying to reach Europe, an account bolstered by local residents who said impoverished young men are tempted to make the perilous journey to Europe.

“There is no job opportunity here. I will try my luck too, but not through Libya,” said Meshesa Mitiku, a longtime friend of the two victims. “I want to move out. There is no chance to improve yourself here. This is the whole community’s opinion.”

Ethiopia’s three days of mourning start Tuesday, when lawmakers will meet to discuss the killings and consider the country’s possible response, the governmment said in a statement.

Ethiopia has angered Islamic extremists over its military’s attacks on neighboring Somalia, whose population is almost entirely Muslim. A militant in the video said “Muslim blood that was shed under the hands of your religion is not cheap,” but the video did not specifically mention the Ethiopian government’s actions.

The Islamic State video showing the killing of the Ethiopians starts with what it called a history of Christian-Muslim relations, followed by scenes of militants destroying churches, graves and icons. A masked fighter brandishing a pistol delivers a long statement, saying Christians must convert toIslam or pay a special tax prescribed by the Quran.

20 April 2015 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned in the strongest terms the killing of a number of Ethiopian nationals in Libya by extremists affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to a United Nations spokesperson.

In a statement released earlier today, Mr. Ban said he “utterly deplores” the targeting of people on the basis of their religious affiliation and expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives as a result of the attack.

The Secretary-General reaffirmed that the UN-backed political talks remained “the best chance” for Libyans to overcome their country’s crisis and encourage the parties to make all the necessary compromises to reach an agreement.

“Only by working together will Libyans be able to start building a state and institutions that can confront terrorism,” concluded the statement from Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.

ISIL, which is also known by its Arabic designation, Da’esh, has been operative in Libya over the past few months amid intensifying UN-backed efforts to facilitate a political resolution to the country’s ongoing crisis. In late February, for example, the militant group claimed responsibility for a series of attacks killed at least 45 people and injured scores of others in the city of al-Qubbah.